The Rockwood Tigers saw their Class 2A playoffs end Friday night, as the Happy Valley Warriors scored 5 first-half touchdowns in route to a 48-3 victory to advance into the second round this Friday against the Grace Christian Rams, 34-7 winners over Sullivan North.

An oblong object can take funny bounces, and that was the case at Cloudland’s Orr Field Friday night as the Highlanders used a pair of onside kick recoveries to spark a great comeback to down Harriman, 60-56, in the opening round of the TSSAA Class 1A playoffs.
The onside kick recoveries came during a 5:13 stretch that would see the Highlanders pull even at 44 early in the fourth quarter. The Blue Devils did have a 44-18 lead before a span that would see more Highlander touchdowns (4) than plays from the Blue Devil offense (3).

Midtown’s intersection of Hwy. 70 and Pine Ridge Road can be a dangerous place, but officials say a project is in the works to make the intersection safer.

Harriman City Manager Kevin Helms said city and state officials have been working since around 2014 to address the problem. The state is now looking at their spot safety program to fund improvements at the intersection.

Helms said the project may go to bid in the first quarter of 2017.

“It is not a big project so hopefully it won’t take too long to get through,” said Helms.

Harriman officials think at least 50 percent of the city’s sales tax revenue is generated by shoppers who do not live in the city.

City Manager Kevin Helms hopes that will be a good reason for Harriman voters to support a sales tax referendum that would increase the city’s sales tax in Harriman .25 percent, from 2.5 to 2.75 percent.

That increase would mean an additional 25 cents for a $100 bag of groceries, for example.

He compares the proposal to a grant, a mixture of funds from outside the community matched by those within.

Jesse Lee Duncan, a 34-year-old Harriman man, faces a sentencing hearing next year in his federal criminal case.

Duncan was indicted by a federal grand jury in June on two counts of knowingly possessing a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches in length not registered to him and one count of knowingly possessing a silencer not registered to him.

He pleaded guilty to those charges last month, and is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips on Feb. 22.